School of Physical Educationhttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/97
Sun, 02 Aug 2015 20:24:10 GMT2015-08-02T20:24:10ZA school’s experience of the attempted implementation of an assisted road crossing initiative: A case studyhttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/5668
A school’s experience of the attempted implementation of an assisted road crossing initiative: A case study
2015
Pearson, Maria
New Zealand schools can elect to implement school traffic safety programmes such as walking school buses (WSBs) and assisted road crossings as a means to enhance child safety on the home to school journey. These initiatives require initial collaboration between the school and associated agencies. Schools and parent volunteers are often left to assume responsibility for operating and maintaining the programme. Each school community is different and will have site-specific needs and varying access to personnel and financial resources. In addition, the policy requirements and broader goals of the government and agencies, as well as the neoliberal educational environment, may have an influence on the school’s ability and willingness to introduce an initiative.
Few studies have investigated the experience of key individuals representing schools and agencies and their perceptions concerning the implementation of school traffic safety programmes. This research focused on a case study of a Dunedin primary school’s attempt to install a road crossing initiative operated by parent volunteers. The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of the school and the agencies involved in the process of installing the road crossing initiative, in order to determine the factors that affected the successful implementation of the crossing.
A qualitative research approach was used. The methods for data collection included open-ended interviews, document analysis, and the researcher’s reflexive diary. Interviews were conducted with the school principal, board of trustees chairperson, and a parent volunteer. Representatives from agencies including the Dunedin City Council, New Zealand Police, Ministry of Education, and Sport Otago were approached for comment via email. Data were transcribed from the taped interview sessions, and an inductive process was used to identify categories and themes from the data.
In this case study the school was unable to install the adult-assisted road crossing. Findings revealed that a lack of parent volunteers was a significant factor affecting the initiative’s success, thus schools should work to strengthen the school-parent partnership. The processes that schools are expected to follow when installing road safety initiatives clearly do not work for every school, and each one has unique factors that may impact on its ability to maintain road safety initiatives.
Sun, 17 May 2015 22:23:11 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/56682015-05-17T22:23:11Z“The First Fifteen” : Understanding the conspiracy of silence of gay rugby players in Aotearoa/New Zealandhttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/5468
“The First Fifteen” : Understanding the conspiracy of silence of gay rugby players in Aotearoa/New Zealand
2004
LeBlanc, Roger Gerard Joseph
To date, only three gay male athletes have ever come out publicly during their professional sporting career in team sports. This reflects the pervasiveness of homophobia in sport and its power to silence and render invisible gay athletes. Moreover, it leads to a number of important sociological, political, moral and philosophical questions. Research that seeks to understand the gay athlete’s perspective on the existence of silence and invisibility is made all the more pertinent as gay rights and equality are currently manifested within social institutions other than mainstream sport.
In order to fill the void of knowledge regarding the silence and invisibility of gay men within mainstream sport, the questions: “What meanings from their perspective do gay rugby players give to their experience of participating in mainstream rugby?’ and “How do these meanings create barriers or opportunities for their survival in rugby?” directed this social phenomenological study of gay rugby union players in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The data arose from in-depth interviews.
An emergent analysis of data found that players’ meanings of silence were predominantly informed by the fear of public opinion. The players’ negotiation of fear emerged as they strategically integrated all aspects of their identity into their everyday worlds.
The key findings of this study transpired when the participants’ meanings of silence were located using a Conspiracy of Silence model which guided the research. The reconstruction of these meanings generated a better understanding of the Conspiracy of Silence phenomenon surrounding gay rugby players.
Fri, 20 Feb 2015 03:21:11 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/54682015-02-20T03:21:11ZToward Inclusive New Zealand Dance Education Strategieshttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/5445
Toward Inclusive New Zealand Dance Education Strategies
2015
Trafford, Jasmine Lee
Inclusion of students with impairments in New Zealand (NZ) dance education needs attention. The aim of this research is to explore how curriculum can better ensure inclusion of all children into dance education. Data is collected using the qualitative research approaches document review and preliminary movement research. I focus on official documents such as: the Ministry of Education owned New Zealand Curriculum (2007), Arts Online (2007b), The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum (2000), and Bronwyn Hayward’s New Zealand Disability and Dance Strategy (2010). These documents are analysed to identify curriculum discourses and how the doctrines might better prepare teachers for meeting the demands of different abilities in dance. A critical review of these texts examines barriers or enablers for the participation of students with impairments. Attention is given to how the documents guide school teachers’ ideologies and practice and might influence the culture of education. This study provides insights into possible curriculum reform, and for improving teacher education.
Wed, 28 Jan 2015 19:33:46 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/54452015-01-28T19:33:46ZWomen's Experiences of Becoming Elite Track and Field Coaches in New Zealandhttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/5431
Women's Experiences of Becoming Elite Track and Field Coaches in New Zealand
2015
Merrilees, Joan Cecily
Elite coaching is predominantly a male vocation with many of New Zealand’s most successful women’s teams being coached by men, such as the national women’s rugby and hockey teams. Research has identified a number of individual, organisational, and structural constraints to women’s progression in coaching. The aim of this study was to examine women’s experiences of becoming elite coaches within track and field in New Zealand. The focus was on professional development, and how this was managed; by the coach; the national organisation; or a combination of both. The study gained insight into the complexities associated with women becoming elite coaches; specifically, the complexities associated with professional development for women elite coaches within New Zealand’s gendered coaching environment. The methods used in the study were face to face semi structured interviews with three participants who are elite coaches. Two themes around professional development emerged. Firstly, professionalism in coaching and secondly, Athletics New Zealand’s professional development and support. The study showed there were several understandings by the participant coaches in regard to both professionalism and Athletics New Zealand’s professional development and support. Within New Zealand’s gendered track and field elite coaching community, men are privileged over women. This research found that within this community there is little sharing of knowledge or support from the professional coaches, with the participants preferring to gain their knowledge and support from their global networks.
Wed, 21 Jan 2015 01:36:16 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/54312015-01-21T01:36:16ZContextualised Skill Acquisition: Investigating the Skill and Expertise of Brazilian Footballershttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/5417
Contextualised Skill Acquisition: Investigating the Skill and Expertise of Brazilian Footballers
2015
Uehara, Luiz Antonio
This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influencing the development of association football expertise and skill in Brazilian players. Only a small number of studies in the field of motor learning have attempted to address this issue due to the qualitative, interpretive research approach required to analyse socio-cultural themes. However, considering that expertise in sports emerges from the complex interaction of multiple constraints, socio-cultural factors have to be further explored in a contextualised manner so that knowledge in the field of motor learning can be advanced. This thesis presents an interpretive, multi-methods approach to holistically investigate the interacting constraints on the development pathway of Brazilian football players.
In contrast to traditional positivist approaches, this thesis is based on the philosophical assumptions of the interpretive research paradigm and the epistemological and methodological tenets of Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model of Human Development. In addition, to guide and generate data, this programme of work adopts ethnographic strategies of inquiry and related methods, including: contextual analysis, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews. Drawing upon the multi-methodological approach, this thesis proposes contextualised skill acquisition research (CSAR) as a suitable methodological framework to investigate skill acquisition in sport. Using this new approach, key findings show that the development of expertise in Brazilian footballers is a function of informal, even aversive variables ranging from the microsystemic level under the context of pelada, mesosystemic level under the context of home and federated clubs, exosystemic level under the context of poverty and macrosystemic level under the context of samba, capoeira, and malandragem.
The objective of this thesis is to promote methodological possibilities to investigate effects of socio-cultural constraints on expertise acquisition in sport. As such the thesis offers new theoretical and epistemological insights to the development of the proposed contextualised skill acquisition research framework. In doing so it seeks to build bridges across the methodological boundaries between sociology and motor learning in the first instance, rather than offering a unifying approach for the whole field.
Mon, 12 Jan 2015 19:35:49 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/54172015-01-12T19:35:49ZWomen's Stories of Joy in the Outdoorshttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/5274
Women's Stories of Joy in the Outdoors
2014
Dignan, Anne Patricia
While outdoor experiences, particularly those involving risk and or activity, are highly valorised and valued we know little about the subject of joy in the outdoors. This study makes inroads into this gap in our understanding by exploring three women’s experiences of joy in the outdoors and grappling with the varied meanings from these stories.
Methodologically this study acknowledges the role that narrative/story has in how we know, live and recount our lives. It draws upon my own experience of the outdoors and the women participants to re-present the women’s interview transcripts into fictional short stories. I also consider some of the conundrums of the narrative research process. The stories were analysed to draw out key themes.
These themes challenge dominant views from within outdoor education and recreation literature and practice. In particular this study highlights; the role of simplicity in both the activity the women were engaging in and simplicity of possessions; the participants’ sense of an aesthetic in their surrounding environment; relationships with both people and animals provided a background to the women’s experience and an absence of a focus on their own bodies which is contrary to much of the historical and contemporary literature.
The women’s stories reveal a number of challenges to the orthodox view of how the outdoors can be valued, experienced and participated in. These findings suggest the need to explore and offer a range of alternative ways of spending time in the outdoors to enable opportunities for positive emotional experiences such as joy. This would require subversion of the dominant discourse of risk and outdoor pursuits as the most valid and valued form of outdoor experience.
Mon, 24 Nov 2014 22:40:08 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/52742014-11-24T22:40:08Z(Re) Conceptualising Dance: Moving towards embodying environment from Japan to Aotearoahttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/5100
(Re) Conceptualising Dance: Moving towards embodying environment from Japan to Aotearoa
2014
Marler, Miriam Claire McEwan
This study is about the relationship between body, landscape, and dance through the researcher’s experiences of learning a Japanese movement approach known as Body Weather (BW) in rural Japan in 2007, and her current dance practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ). To explore this topic, diverse viewpoints concerned with rethinking our notions of dance technique and training are reviewed (Bales & Nettl-Fiol, 2008; Browning, 2010). The cultural and somatic understandings of the Japanese dance practice and philosophy butoh (Crump, 2006; Fraleigh, 2010; Hamera, 1990; Stein, 2001), and its offspring Body Weather (Grant & de Quincey, 2006; Orr & Sweeney, 2011; Snow, 2006; Taylor, 2010) provide a lens expanding the notion of dance. Body Weather relevance within the Aotearoa context is also highlighted. How Māori notions of ecology (Marsden, 2003; Mead, 2003; Royal, 2007, 2009) might inform or share conversation with Body Weather practice in Aotearoa is analysed.
Approaches of dance ethnography and practice-based research are blended to unearth somatic and cultural knowledge from Body Weather experiences in Japan and Aotearoa in response to the research question: What cultural and philosophical perspectives were gained through dance experiences on Min Tanaka’s Body Weather farm? And the guiding sub questions: a) what conceptualisation did I, the researcher, bring to the experience? b) How does knowledge from the experience in Japan inform current practice in Ōtepoti/Dunedin?
The thesis argues that Body Weather is a somatic, ecological movement practice that is rooted in Japanese notions of body and spirituality, and offers insight into the ways in which it can successfully transplant in Aotearoa. The study aims to stimulate a critical somatic perspective that expands our definitions of dance.
Mon, 03 Nov 2014 02:50:57 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/51002014-11-03T02:50:57ZDeterminants of Cardiovascular Health in Breast Cancer Survivors Based on Physical Activity Statushttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/5085
Determinants of Cardiovascular Health in Breast Cancer Survivors Based on Physical Activity Status
2014
Brown, Casey
While the worldwide incidence of breast cancer is high, the New Zealand 5-year survival rate is encouraging at 86% which can be attributed to improvements in screening programmes and technological advances in chemotherapy (CT) and radiation therapies (RT). However, many anticancer therapies have potentially debilitating side-effects, including the development of cardiac toxicity, reductions in cardiorespiratory fitness and changes in body composition. Although it is well known that these treatments are associated with a relatively high risk of developing both cardiac and endothelial dysfunction, possible determinants of cardiovascular health (CV) in cancer survivors remains unknown. However, across numeral clinical populations such as coronary artery disease and hypertensive individuals, physical activity (PA) has been shown to have a cardio-protective effect on the CV system. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to provide insight into CV health of breast cancer survivors previously treated with CT and/or RT, based on PA status. Specific aims were to investigate whether PA status determines central blood pressures (cBP) and arterial stiffness within this population. A second aim was to investigate whether cardiorespiratory fitness and/or body composition may moderate CV health following these treatments. This study used a cross-sectional design with participants being women previously treated with RT and/or CT for breast cancer who were classified as either physically active (n=44) or inactive (n=21) based on current PA status. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) Long Form was used to evaluate PA level. A vascular health assessment assessed arterial stiffness and central blood pressures, while a submaximal treadmill walking test was used to estimate VO2max. Body composition was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. A multiple linear regression was utilised for statistical testing. Active participants had significantly lower central blood pressures (SBP: 111±12 mmHg vs. 120±13 mmHg, p=0.012; DBP: 72±6 mmHg vs. 79±7 mmHg, p=0.000) compared to inactive participants; however, arterial stiffness was similar between the two study groups (p=0.659). Linear regression models showed that V ̇O2max is a predictor of arterial stiffness (AIx %) and approached significance with myocardial efficiency (indicated by the use of double product, DP); however, the association between V ̇O2max and AIx becomes non-significant after adjusting for age. Fat mass (%) (FM %) was found to be an important moderator of DP not AIx, even after adjusting for both age and V ̇O2max.. The novel results from the current study suggest that there is an association between higher levels of recreational PA and lower cBP’s in breast cancer survivors following treatment. Secondly, FM (%) was identified as an important moderator of myocardial efficiency, with V ̇O2max a predictor of arterial stiffness. Identifying possible determinants of CV health is imperative for reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease development and mortality in breast cancer patients following treatment.
Wed, 29 Oct 2014 21:06:12 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/10523/50852014-10-29T21:06:12Z